[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 250 KB, 1200x1553, the-golden-bough-29.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
14200833 No.14200833 [Reply] [Original]

What's a good book to start learning about religion? And is there something shorter and/or better than The Golden Bough? Or at the very least brainlet friendly

>> No.14200847

>>14200833
Mircea Eliade, especially his 3 volume series on the history of religious ideas. There is no other way around this, I'm afraid.

>> No.14200854

>>14200833
The Bible
The Koran
The Tao te Ching
The Bhagavad Ghita
Etc. etc.

>> No.14200856

>>14200847
This. Eliade, the golden bough, you’ll end up getting into social psych and anthropology. I really like ethnographic works. Evans-Pritchards work on Azande Witchcraft was really good

>> No.14200869

>>14200847
sounds jewish

>> No.14200916

>>14200869
>A religion scholar who was friends with Carl Schmitt, covertly fascist, and also secretly held Traditionalist views is jewish

>> No.14200965

>>14200847
Thanks for answering anon, I'll check them out.

>>14200854
I plan to dabbled into them now and then but I really don't want to start there.

>>14200856
I'm not sure I'll go that deep into it but I'll take note of him. Thank you anon

>> No.14200993

>>14200833
Thomas Merton, The Seven Story Mountain

>> No.14201000

>>14200916
sounds based

>> No.14201227
File: 77 KB, 288x394, blood passover.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
14201227

>>14200833
The Golden Bough is a good spin. Read Wittgenstein's rebuttal first, realizing that his rebuttal gives no reasonable replacement for Frazers methods - as Frazer was chasing missing fragments and was forced to use reductive reasoning. When Wittgenstein can give a reasonable explanation as to what the golden bough is and why it is significant I will give his amended rebuttal a fresh consideration. KIM that once you have read Bough that you will not have a general understanding of "religions" but of "religion". Frazer's thesis only covers evolution of religion and he poses a universal ontology. It is still not a bad place to start. It appears to ramble and lose it's way but his revelation at the end shows that he was always on track as he brings you full circle to the answer for the question posited at the beginning.

>> No.14201314
File: 1.04 MB, 4000x2250, lit_masksofgodrandom.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
14201314

>>14200847
fpbp

>>14200833
Golden Bough is alright. Joseph Campbell's Masks of God is better and worth reading. Read Cunningham and Kelsay's textbook The Sacred Quest. It's very brainlet friendly. If you want more about origins of western tradition, Burkert's Greek Religion. And the Bible of course, NASB or NRSV preferably. And Plato. Keep in mind the Greeks and Romans treated philosophy and religion almost interchangeably; they are both endeavors in piety, in perfecting the human life and pleasing to the gods. Christianity in its earliest years was considered by some to be just another school of philosophy, in fact. One that was criticized for its lack of rigor and foundation in revealed knowledge.

>> No.14201337

I should note Masks of God is a four volume work. It describes and organizes human belief into roughly chronological and geographic order: primitive, east, west, and future. Not as short as you asked for, but probably the best all-in-one of those recommendations if you were only going to read one.